Horizons for the blind empowers by providing everyday things

And you thought your 30-page cell-phone bill was big.

Some people get theirs delivered in a box.

Many people who can't read standard print are used to statements of up to 1,000 pages -- or more -- in large print or Braille.

But someone has to take the time to transcribe each bill for the blind and visually impaired.

That work increasingly falls to a high-tech Crystal Lake organization staffed mostly by people who are blind or legally blind themselves.

Horizons for the Blind, a non-profit organization, empowers visually challenged individuals by giving them access to all kinds of printed materials.

Founder Camille Caffarelli said enabling them to do all their own reading enhances self-sufficiency. She knows firsthand.

"A long time ago, before I started Horizons, when my kids were real little," she said, "a lady came and was reading telephone bills to me." The woman told Caffarelli she thought one bill was too high and tried to tell the young mother to cut back on her usage.

But the advice was unwelcome because "it wasn't really any of her business," Caffarelli said.

"That's what happens when you don't have that kind of empowerment."

So Horizons transcribes 20,000 bank, utility and credit card statements each month, menus for companies like Hyatt Corp. and Seattle Sutton, and user manuals for household appliances.

Customers can get these materials embossed in the tactile Braille alphabet or magnified in "large print," a 22-point bold typeface.

Audio versions of many items, including bills, are available on cassette, CD and MP3.

Braille signs used in museums and other cultural exhibits, hotels, taxicabs and laundromats may well have been created at Horizons, and cookbooks and craft instruction are offered in Braille, large print or audio.

Bears fans can even get an embossed program guide to use in the stands with a portable radio.

The organization celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Congratulatory letters have been received from the governor, the mayor of Chicago and other national and local dignitaries.

When Caffarelli started Horizons for the Blind, she had recently lost her husband to a brain tumor and was looking for a way to support her three children in Rogers Park, a neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago.

Eventually the organization moved to Carpentersville and later to its current location in downtown Crystal Lake.

Housed in a former funeral home for the past seven years, Horizons employs people from as far away as Des Plaines and Elmwood Park, some of whom bring seeing eye dogs that nap lazily behind their owners' desks.

"I think the most amazing thing is the growth," said Brian Heuer, marketing and development coordinator.

"Camille started out in 1977 in her basement with a couple of volunteers. It's grown into this, and we're running out of space."

About two-thirds of Horizons' 40 employees, a handful of whom are in a branch office in Florida, are blind or nearly so.

But that doesn't stop them from turning out accurate copy.

"There's some really amazing people here," Heuer said.

And amazing equipment. "Anything a person needs to do a job, we provide," said Caffarelli. "If you can't see the screen you have to have some way of accessing it."

Some computers -- like the one at the desk of Celine Bush, a savvy proofreader who happens to be blind and deaf -- are equipped with "pop-up" displays that convert text on the monitor into Braille.

Other computers have speech synthesizers that convert text to audio.

Horizons' top tech guy, Gavin Walkington, is completely blind but does his job by listening to what's on the screen -- at some 400 words per minute.

These people are among the users of the products they put out, so Caffarelli considers their input invaluable.

"This is one of the few arenas where a visual loss is actually a plus," she said.

"We're not hiring them because we've got to have a couple of 'them' on our staff, but we're hiring them because they're important -- that's the part that I love."

Of course, there do need to be sighted people around, too -- especially in the mailroom, where blind and sighted people work together to see that all bills go into the right envelopes -- or boxes, as the case may be. A good pair of eyes is also needed at the front end, when Horizons receives paper statements for transcription.

If a company such as AT&T or Sears is able to submit its invoices electronically -- and the big customers usually do -- a blind employee can reformat and convert the information to large print or Braille by computer. Often those statements can go out the door the same day.

If the bills come in as hard copy, it takes a sighted person to input data, and turn-around time is up to five days.

Everything has to be transcribed, even the "small print," and everything gets proofread by Braille or large-print users.

Braille materials are published on five BookMaker embossing machines that put out double-sided pages on 100-pound paper. A talking scale helps in the shipping room.

Horizons also publishes a national monthly magazine, Seeing It Our Way, with recipes, crafts, gardening tips and such. An auxiliary group, Horizon Weekenders, organizes trips to concerts and other activities for individuals who are blind or have low vision, and their guests.

It's been a satisfying 30 years for Caffarelli.

"It feels good to know that you're making a difference and to see forward movement," Caffarelli said, "to see us getting our name known nationally -- and knowing that the majority of it is being done by people who are blind or visually impaired.

"I love that," she said. "I love seeing people being empowered."

How to help

As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, Horizons for the Blind offers most of its materials free or at cost to individuals and corporate clients. That means the charity relies heavily on donations to support its mission to blind and low-vision persons.

At or near the top of its current wish list would be a couple of BrailleNotes laptop computers retailing at $5,000 each, said Brian Heuer, marketing and development coordinator.

"We've been wanting to get those into all of our Braille readers' hands," he said. "It would just blow our communication out of the water. It would also make our communication seamless between ourselves and our clients."

Another $30,000 Braille commercial printer "could basically quadruple our output," Heuer said. Other needs include computers with a processor of 1 gigabyte or higher; contemporary office chairs and desks; a commercial paper shredder; locking file and storage cabinets; and a fax machine.

For more information, contact Heuer at (815) 444-8800.